Greater New Orleans

A St. Louis Cardinals baseball at rests on top of Michael Brown's casket before the start of his funeral at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis, Monday, Aug. 25, 2014. Brown, who is black, was unarmed when he was shot in Ferguson, Mo., Aug. 9 by Officer Darren Wilson, who is white. Protesters took to the streets of the St. Louis suburb night after night, calling for change and drawing national attention to issues surrounding race and policing.
(AP Photo/New York Times, Richard Perry, Pool)

"I do remember racial slurs being yelled from the crowd." -- a victim of an allegedly racially charged attack in Mississippi Saturday

I'm skeptical of the report out of West Point, Miss., that a black mob beat up two white men to exact some kind of revenge for a white police officer killing an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo. I know that it comes at a risk for me to say that the story sounds embellished - if not completely fictionalized - but I'm going to take that risk: It sounds made up.

I don't doubt that something happened. After all, Ralph Weems IV, a Marine who had served in Iraq, was reported in fair condition at a Tupelo hospital Sunday. A relative told the Associated Press that Weems had had brain surgery and was in a medically induced coma. But the reported sequence of events that preceded Weems' hospitalization sounds like Susan Smith, sounds like Charles Stuart. That is, the story sounds like some of the legendary hoaxes starring black monsters.

Smith was the white woman in South Carolina who drowned her kids and then told police a black man separated her from them in a carjacking. Stuart was the Boston man who said a black carjacker killed his pregnant wife. If I'm proved wrong, I'll admit it, and if a group of black men just up and attacked these white men, they ought to be punished, but it's hard to believe this story as it's being reported.

David Knighten, a friend of Weems who served in Afghanistan with the Air Force, told the Associated Press that they stopped at Waffle House in West Point about 1 a.m. Saturday but that outside he was warned by a polite stranger that it wasn't a safe place for white people. The black people inside were reportedly angry about Michael Brown being killed in Missouri.

It sounds made up that people in a small town 418 miles away would be violently angry over Brown's killing, and it also sounds made up that people in a small town 418 miles would choose to express such anger by keeping a Waffle House free of white folks.

But back to Knighten's story:

When he entered the restaurant, he said, he found his friend arguing with other men. The police showed up. Knighten says he showed them his .45 caliber handgun and his concealed-carry permit. Police made everybody leave.

At about 2 a.m., Knighten says, he and Weems were on their way to Weems' house but decided to stop at Huddle House. The parking lot was nearly empty. But, Knighten says, the pair soon realized that they had been followed by more than 20 people.

That sounds fishy, too.

According to an Internet report from a television station in nearby Columbus, Weems and Knighten had argued at the Waffle House with "as many as seven men." But, according to the story Knighten tells the AP, at Huddle House they were confronted with a crowd three times larger.

Knighten said he exited a restroom at Huddle House to find Weems surrounded. There was some shoving, he said, and a security guard ordered everyone out. Weems apparently exited first and by the time Knighten was able to make his way through the crowd, he says he saw Weems down on the ground being kicked. "I do remember racial slurs being yelled from the crowd," he said.

That gives an extra element of perfection to the story: black people, mad about Michael Brown, multiply in size and hop from one all-night diner to another, pounce upon two veterans and yell out racial slurs while they're beating them.

It's also notable that all throughout the night, Knighten kept discovering his friend in trouble. By the time he walked into Waffle House, Weems was arguing with men. By the time he exited the bathroom at Huddle House, Weems was surrounded. By the time he walked outside the Huddle House, Weems was on the ground being kicked.

By the time police arrived, Knighten said, the vicious mob had left. Knighten told the AP that he has broken bones in his face, a cut over his left eye and a blood clot in his right. A spokeswoman would only say that Weems was in fair condition. I don't know if that contradicts his relative's report that he had had brain surgery, but if "fair condition" can include a medically induced coma, then the phrase has no real meaning.

Though I'm not a fan of hate crimes, they do exist, and police have the authority to give certain crimes that label. It's notable, then, that Tim Brinkley, the police chief in West Point issued a statement saying, "This does not appear to be a hate crime. We are investigating this as an aggravated assault. It's very early in this investigation but thus far the evidence and statements suggest that a verbal altercation turned physical and somebody got hurt."

According to that statement, the police are reviewing surveillance video and trying to find the owner of a car that left the scene before police arrived.

Again, Weems' injuries seem to attest to the report that something happened, but the allegations that he was harassed, stalked and beaten by black people mad about Michael Brown's killing seems like an old story with new details plugged in.

UPDATE: I said above that Knighten's report of more than 20 attackers at Huddle House seemed fishy given the television web site's report of "as many as seven" people fussing with them at Waffle House. When Brinkley, the police chief, spoke to the Associated Press Monday, he said he expects an arrest soon. As for Knigthen's report of more than 20 attackers, the chief said, "From what we have seen from surveillance video and from what other witnesses say, it doesn't appear it's going to be nearly that many." Score one for skepticism.